


Tommy Knows: "Vertigo"

by ThomE_Gemcity_06



Series: Eloquence of a Secret [12]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon-divergence, Angst, Brief Light Tommy!Whump, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s1e12 - “Vertigo", Family Drama, Friendship, Gen, Parental Infidelity, Referenced Drug Use, Secrets, Tommy Knows!, casework, relationship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 08:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11180517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThomE_Gemcity_06/pseuds/ThomE_Gemcity_06
Summary: Tommy tries to split himself in half to be there for the Queen Siblings in light of Vertigo.





	Tommy Knows: "Vertigo"

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow, its episodes or its characters.   
> Tag: Season 1, Episode 12 - "Vertigo"

**aRRoW**

"The two of you need to slow down." Diggle told them clearly.

"Slow down?" Tommy repeated, incredulous for the both of them as Oliver took off his Hood. "That judge just basically announced his intention of sentencing Thea to prison, Diggle. And you want us to slow our roll? Not a chance!" he shook his head. He turned his back to Diggle and addressed Oliver, "While you were out, I got the location of some more dealer's corners."

Oliver nodded. "This last Vertigo dealer you found me, finally gave me a name. The Count. He's the creator and supplier of Vertigo. We find him, take him out before Thea's trial..."

"So you keep going after the dealers and they'll eventually lead us to the bastard." Tommy said, but Oliver shook his head.

"All these Vertigo pushers are so low level, that was why it took so long to even find one that knew this guy's name. No. We need to go higher up on the food chain,"

Tommy furrowed his brows. "You want to do a drug deal? Draw out The Count with the enticement of a lot of money. But how do you expect to do that? We don't know anyone other than the dealers."

"My Russian associates, the same who helped with finding out the identity of Deadshot." Oliver said. "They should be able to set up a meet with Mr. Count. This is just up their wheelhouse."

"I still don't get how you know the Russian mob." Tommy muttered, but if it could help Thea, it didn't matter.

Oliver looked over to his body guard. "Diggle, are you with us, or not?"

"I'm with you." Diggle gave a nod. "But just so you know, if I think you're starting to lose it, I'm not going to be still or quiet about it."

"Didn’t expect you to."

**X**

Tommy backed through the doorway with the loaded tray. "Hey, Speedy, I got--"

"She's having an affair with Tommy's dad—again—but you just refuse to see it. You think she's this saint, but she's not. She cheated on dad and now she's cheating on Walter--"

"What?!" Tommy exclaimed, stumbling as he whipped around when his feet weren't ready. Dinnerware clattered as the tray was destabilized. Soda sloshed onto his t-shirt, but he managed to save the tray and its contents. He quickly set it on the side table. "What did you say?" he repeated. Both Queen siblings were frozen. "Thea?"

Thea just shook her head, her lips tight. "I'm going to my room!" she spun for the other door.

"Thea!" Tommy bolted after her, leaping the low coffee table, and skidding into her way in the doorway. "Come on." He took her shoulders and steered her back to the couch.

"Tommy!" she protested as he pushed her down.

He sat in front of her on the coffee table, his legs encaging her own. If she wanted to get away, she was going to have to climb back over the couch. "What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

"Tommy, she doesn't know what she talking about." Oliver scrubbed a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Thea?" Tommy prompted.

Thea shrunk back against the couch, her hands fiddling in her lap. "Mom's sleeping with your dad. I saw them together. This isn't the first time either."

"You've seen them together? Kissing?"

"No. But I know what I saw!" she sat up and grabbed his hand.

Tommy was quiet, his eyes unfocused as Thea stared a him, pleading for him to believe her even as terrible was it was. "I think they did—once. A long time ago." He said quietly.

"You can't be serious?!" Oliver protested.

"But not now, Thea." Tommy swore, locking eyes. "I promise."

"How can you know?" she asked in a small voice.

"Trust me." He squeezed her knee. "I just do."

"Tommy--" Oliver was disbelieved.

Tommy looked across at him. "Don't you have that business meeting?" his gaze flickered pointedly at the teen. "You don't want to be late. Thea and I will be here, binge watching Orange is the New Black. She insisted, by executive rule." He chuckled and shifted himself on the couch next to Thea. "Text me when you're done to let me know how it went."

**X**

"What the hell happened?" Tommy demanded as soon as Diggle busted through the South alley entrance of the lair carrying a very disoriented Hood. He had been with Thea when he got the 911 text from Diggle and had made it to the foundry scant minutes before the pair.

"The cops blew up the deal," Diggle grunted as he cleared a table and put Oliver on it. "Don't know how they knew about it, but The Count got away—just not before he injected Oliver with this crap. How's that magic potion coming, Merlyn?"

"Finished!" Tommy tossed aside the grinder and rushed over to the pair with the herb-mixed water. He swallowed his anxiety at seeing his friend in a state that was not dissimilar to when he'd been grazed with the curare bullet. "Okay, Ollie. Drink up," he leaned forward, one hand going behind Oliver's thrashing head, the other bring the cup forward—when suddenly, Oliver's hand was around his throat. The herb mixed water sloshed over his fingers as Tommy consciously tried to keep his hand steady even as Oliver choked him. The blue eyes looked _through_ him, not seeing him. "Oliver!" he chocked.

Diggle quickly lunged across the table and pried Oliver's fingers from his neck, pinning the blond’s straining arms to his chest. Tommy sucked in a terrible breath through the lump in his throat, coughing lightly, but he quickly took advantage and made Oliver drink the island medicine.

When Oliver finished the drink, Tommy slumped back into a chair, the cup hanging loosely from his fingers.

"Alright, Merlyn?" Diggle took advantage of Oliver's stillness to handcuff him to the table.

"Yeah, I'm great." He cleared his throat. He got to his feet and put the herbs away. "So, what was it that Oliver got injected with?"

Diggle gave a last glance at Oliver, before he went over to Tommy and held out the double-syringe. "This."

Tommy took it; both tubes were half-filled with a clear brown liquid. "That looks like something I would willingly put into my body," he remarked sarcastically. "It's definitely not what they're selling on the corners." He picked up a baggie of Vertigo pills that had amassed while he been out looking for the dealers and held them side-by-side. "It must be another version of Vertigo, maybe its pure form before they make it into the pills." He put both down on the table and leaned against the edge.

"You ever try Vertigo?" Diggle asked curiously.

Tommy looked at him, crossing his arms. He shook his head. "No. Before my time. I stopped doing that stuff a few years ago. After Ollie 'died' I kind of went hard. There were some close-calls, things got out of hand. I stopped more for Thea's sake than my own in the beginning." He sighed. "Oliver was out all night last time; it's going to be a long one."

**...**

Oliver lurched into a seated position on the table with a low grown. "Got the key?" he tugged his cuffed wrist. "I'm not going to kill you," Oliver promised.

"It's not me I was worried about." Diggle muttered.

Before Oliver could question what he meant, Tommy spoke up. "Looks like Sleeping Beauty's awake!" he smiled and approached with the key to the cuffs, springing his friend. "How ya feeling, buddy?"

"I feel like I'm getting over the worst hangover of my life." He complained, rubbing at his wrist.

"Must be strong stuff if that's coming from a guy who spent most of his twenties in a hangover." Diggle remarked with dry humour.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't drink for five-years and I haven't touched the stuff since I've been back." Tommy offered him a bottle of water, and he drained it thirstily. "Please tell me the SCPD managed to arrest The Count after all the effort they put into screwing up our plan?"

"Not a chance. Bugger managed to slip away." Diggle told him. "But we got that Vertigo he managed to dose you with, luckily it wasn't a full dose otherwise we'd be planning your funeral for real right now."

"Speaking of that... are you sure you're okay?" Tommy asked. "You look like shit warmed over."

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face. "I just got dosed with years worth of Vertigo in one sitting, the herbs counteracted against it—I'm basically in withdrawal right now." He shivered.

"So, what's the plan for this stuff?" Diggle gestured at the liquid Vertigo on the table.

"Felicity." Oliver said determinedly, straightening. "We analyze the Vertigo. It's in liquid form so it contains water. Maybe we can trace that back to where in the city The Count is ... cooking up this garbage." He stepped from the table that had been taking his weight, and stumbled as if drunk.

Tommy caught his elbow. "Maybe _I_ should go see Felicity," he suggested. "You should head home. And if not to sleep," he predicted his friend's protestations, "Then maybe see if Laurel was able to come through with that favour."

"Okay," Oliver finally agreed gruffly. "Where's my shirt?"

"What we really should be doing is getting you to a hospital." Diggle tossed it over and Oliver barely managed to catch it. "God knows what he injected you with, Oliver."

"Like a newborn babe." Tommy chuckled as Oliver struggled, if very briefly, with his shirt; he got a glower in return as his head came through the neck-hole.

**...**

"Hey," Felicity said softly when she saw him. "I saw the news. Oliver's sister… How are you guys doing?"

"Hi." He gave her a small smile. "Okay, considering. We're working on it."

She nodded. "If I can do anything..." she offered him sincerely.

"Actually... I need a big favour." She raised a curious brow and he pulled out the double syringe.

"What the heck is that?" she baulked.

He inhaled deeply—and decided to give her at least 75% of the truth (things like Oliver being The Hood and a part of the Russian mob redacted for everyone's safety) instead of lying utterly. "It's Vertigo."

"Excuse me?!" she took a step back and pointed. "Why do you have that and why does it look like that?"

"Oliver and I tried to do a sting of sorts get to get The Count to reveal himself, you know, like a drug deal you see in the movies, and then call the cops. But things didn’t really go as planned and he got away, but we managed to get this." He gestured the needles. "I was wondering if you could analyze and find out where it came from. Can you help us?"

She squinted at him for a moment, before she nodded. "Okay." She took it tenderly, like it might bite her—or more acurately, poison her. "I'll see what I can do."

**...**

"That was close." Oliver admitted when he returned to the lair. "I ran into Lance."

"What about The Count?" Tommy asked. "Did you... kill him before Lance got there?"

"No. He'll just wish I killed him."

"Scary." Tommy muttered.

Oliver's cell rang. He furrowed his brows at the caller I.D. "Felicity?" he answered. "Now? | Sure. | Do you want Tommy, too, or just me? | Yeah. Alright. | I'm sure his feelings will heal. | I'll meet you in thirty. Bye."

"I am not jealous or with hurt feelings," Tommy denied mockingly. "What did she want?"

"I don't know. Just to meet a BBB and that it was important." Oliver shrugged. "I'll see you guys later."

f

**aRROW**


End file.
